


oh, but mainly losing you

by and_hera



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Post MAG160, SO, Shopping, i want so badly to tag this as fluff but also the world ended and everyone's suffering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26930239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/and_hera/pseuds/and_hera
Summary: Melanie shrugs. “I guess. It’s just very funny, that at the end of the world, you’re still pushing a cart around a grocery store that has been partially melted.”“Does peanut butter have a long shelf life?” Georgie wonders out loud.or, Melanie and Georgie are doing their best in this deeply, deeply fucked up world.
Relationships: Georgie Barker/Melanie King
Comments: 5
Kudos: 31





	oh, but mainly losing you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jublis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jublis/gifts).



> this is for my friend ju's birthday! ju i love you!  
> this is short and sweet, i just really love wtgfs <3 if you enjoy please leave comments and kudos! and you can come talk to me on twitter @lcvelaces  
> title is from a complete list of fears ages 5-28 (aprox) by the yellow dress!

“I can’t believe you got a _cart_ ,” Melanie comments. She grabs a bag off of a shelf and tosses it into the cart. Georgie looks at what she’s grabbed- flour, it’s literally flour- and sighs before picking it up and putting it back. “What did I grab this time?” Melanie asks.

“Flour,” Georgie says dryly. “Not your best.”

“Damn. I thought I was getting more accurate.” Melanie adjusts the bandana around her eyes. 

Georgie grabs a box of dried cashews- why are they in this part of the store? whatever- and keeps going through. “I think it’s just been pure luck so far,” she says. “And about the cart, it’s really a good way to keep everything together. We can put our backpacks in it, too.”

Melanie shrugs. “I guess. It’s just very funny, that at the end of the world, you’re still pushing a cart around a grocery store that has been partially melted.”

“Does peanut butter have a long shelf life?” Georgie wonders out loud.

“Is there any left, now that the Desolation’s hit?” Melanie replies.

Georgie shrugs, and grabs it anyway.

The Admiral meows from his bag in the cart, peeking his head out. He’s been handling the apocalypse surprisingly well, considering everything. He didn’t even lose it when their apartment was left suspended over nothingness, or when they had to walk through flesh to make it to another safe spot, or when they saw the remains of an old house in what used to be a countryside, collapsed in on itself like a hug.

Well, to be honest, Georgie isn’t surprised that he hasn’t lost it. He’s a cat. He’ll be fine anywhere. What Georgie is surprised about is that she and Melanie haven’t lost it, yet. 

This world is horrific and new, but it isn't for them. They aren’t supposed to die here, or something. And Georgie isn’t afraid, because she can’t be afraid, and Melanie isn’t as worried as she might have been, because she can’t see anything, but it’s still- strange. And worrying.

At least some places haven’t been touched by these godforsaken powers. At least there’s still a shitty Walmart, only slightly singed by the nearby domain of the Desolation.

Melanie runs her left hand across the shelves as she walks, the other holding on to the handle of the cart. The Admiral meows, and he leans up and bats his paw at her fingers. She laughs, surprised, and reaches to try and pet him. He obliges and nudges her hand with his head.

“How exactly do you know what food doesn’t expire?” Melanie asks. She can’t see what Georgie is grabbing, but every now and then she hears a little _thump_ when something else is thrown in the cart. “Like, we don’t technically need stuff that doesn’t expire. We can always come back.”

Georgie hums, to let Melanie know she’s thinking. She does that. She makes little verbal gestures to let Melanie know that she’s going to answer, or that she heard Melanie’s question, or something like that. Melanie doesn’t know if that’s love, but it’s close to it. “I don’t know if this place works like that,” Georgie says. “I mean, we’ve been through plenty of domains, now. But I don’t think we’ll ever find ourselves back where we started, you know?”

“So, we can’t ever go back to the apartment with the endless void, or however you described it?”

“You know, if I was afraid of heights and if you weren’t blind, I don’t think we would have ever left.”

“ _Afraid of heights._ Babe, you’re not afraid of anything. _Literally_.”

“That was the joke, Melanie.”

Melanie snorts. “Yeah, I know.”

“The point is,” Georgie says, “I don’t think we’ll find ourselves back at this store again. And we don’t need to eat _too_ much, I don’t think-”

“I haven’t been hungry since this whole _thing_ started-”

“But it’s still nice to have some on hand, just in case of… I don’t know. An emergency.”

Melanie reaches down into the cart again, feeling for the soft fur she’s come to know and love. She finds his back and pets it. “You better get him cat food, too,” she says. “And treats. We used to give him treats every night.”

“Oh, I don’t know how he’s survived,” Georgie says dryly. Melanie feels her hand join hers in petting him. “I don’t think he needs to eat, either. Whatever it is about us that lets us be unbothered must apply to him too.”

“Aww, who’s a good magical kitty?” Melanie cooes.

“Or, the opposite of magical, I guess. Magic-repellant.”

“Semantics.”

“You know, in terms of apocalypses,” Georgie starts, and Melanie makes a noise that’s halfway to a laugh before she can even continue her sentence. “In terms of apocalypses, we lucked out.”

Melanie laughs for real, now. “We _lucked out_? Love, you can’t feel fear and I can’t see. I mean, maybe in this _one specific situation_ that’s sort of a win, but-”

“The one specific situation that is now our life?” 

Melanie sighs. “Yeah. I guess. It’s just that, with everything we’ve gone through, I wouldn’t classify anything as _lucking out_.”

Georgie says, “we aren’t those people in the Desolation’s domain. Or the Flesh’s. We just get to walk right past and be fine. Doesn’t it seem a little unfair?”

“It’s not like it’s our fault,” Melanie says fiercely. “We had _nothing_ to do with this. I did everything in my power to not be complicit. You weren’t ever really a big part of it in the first place, and that _does_ count as lucking out.”

Georgie shrugs. Melanie can’t see her shrug. She makes a little ‘I-don’t-know’ noise instead, to convey the point. “Maybe not being complicit isn’t enough.”

Melanie picks another random thing off the shelf. She thinks it might be a knife, or maybe a spoon. “What are we supposed to do, go chase down the eye tower always in the distance and kill the big bad?”

The cart stops moving, so Melanie stops too. There’s a rustling noise that Melanie assumes is Georgie turning to look at her. “What?” she asks.

“Maybe we don’t need to kill him,” Georgie says slowly, and Melanie can _hear_ the smile in her voice. Then she takes Melanie’s hand and runs it over the top of whatever she’s holding- it’s round and jagged and if Georgie wasn’t so gentle, she’d probably have cut her finger open. 

It’s a melon baller. “Georgie Barker,” Melanie says, “are you saying that we should chase down Elias Bouchard, or whoever the hell he is-”

“I’m pretty sure he’s Jonah Magnus. Martin called once before everything, and he sorta explained things-”

“And _cut out his eyes_?”

A beat. “Yes,” Georgie says.

“Where is your face. I want to kiss you.”

Georgie laughs, a beautiful thing, and she takes Melanie’s face in her hands and kisses her slowly. They’re standing in a Walmart at the end of the world, and they’re two grown women who are in love, and Melanie thinks she hears the Admiral meow from the shopping cart as if telling them to get a move on.

Melanie doesn’t think she’s in any rush, though. If the apocalypse can’t get them, why hurry?

“Are you serious?” Melanie says once Georgie’s leaned back. “I mean, do you really want to do something?”

Georgie shrugs. “I mean, it’s not like there’s much else to do. We can’t wander forever.”

Melanie nods, slowly. She puts the melon baller in the cart. “Well, then,” she says, “what are we waiting for?”


End file.
